Alternatives in Jewish Bioethics

This dialogue between the Jewish normative tradition and Western moral philosophy addresses central contemporary issues in medical ethics. Alternatives in Jewish Bioethics consists of a dialogue between contemporary, Western moral philosophy and the Jewish tradition of legal/moral discourse (Halakha). Recognizing that no single tradition has a monopoly on valid moral teachings, it seeks to enrich our ethical perspectives through mutual exchange.
This is facilitated by a non-authoritarian approach to Judaism—a clear alternative to the implicitly insular, “take-it-or-leave-it” approach often encountered in this field. Following in the footsteps of classical rabbinic discussions, normative pronouncements are grounded in reasons, open to critical examination. The “alternatives” are within the book as well—the presentation throughout avoids one-sided conclusions, citing and analyzing two or more positions to make sense of the debate. These particular arguments are also linked to a larger picture, contrasting two basic themes: religious naturalism versus religious humanism.
Concretely, the book addresses some of the central contemporary issues in the ethics of medicine. These include assisted suicide and euthanasia, donor insemination and “surrogate” motherhood, the use of human cadavers for learning and research, and allocation of scarce resources at both the individual and social levels.

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Contents

Acknowledgments

The dialogue between the Jewish and Western traditions,
of which this book forms a part, has been central to
my consciousness from early adolescence onwards. It is a
tribute to my parents, Yitzhak Zohar and Ora (Levin) Zohar,
that they succeeded in fostering a home ambience of rich
pluralism and strong commitments. Building on that foundation, ...

Introduction

Some people wonder whether there can be "Jewish
ethics." Their doubts cannot, however, be answered simply
by an invitation to enter a library and note the various relevant
titles, or by pointing to the vast tradition of Jewish
normative discourse stretching back across three millennia.
Although they recognize all this, their doubts persist, ...

PART I. Authority in Nature

1. Religious Naturalism: Human Responsibility and Divine Decree

Modern medicine is often at the forefront of technological
advance. a triumph of applied empirical science.
Still. the goal of modern physicians is the same as that of
their less successful predecessors: overcoming injury and
illness. From a theistic perspective. this goal carries a ...

2. Death: Natural Process and Human Intervention

Euthanasia only becomes morally conceivable when,
due to great suffering, it is against a person's interest to go
on living. I In many situations, primarily where the person
is unable to express his or her position, determining that it
is best for someone to die is very complicated. But sometimes ...

3. Parenthood: Natural Fact and Human Society

Our discussion of naturalism thus far has focused on
explicitly normative questions. The naturalistic arguments
we examined sought to justify a norm by reference to some
set of facts. The standard critique of such arguments
accepts the posited facts while contesting the proposed ...

God and Nature: A Summary

The relationship to God is unquestionably central to
the Halakhic normative system. But, as shown by the foregoing
discussions, the specific impact of the divine on
human affairs is far from unequivocal.
The Nahmanidean view emphasizes utter trust and
reliance; its ideal is human dependence upon God, whose ...

PART II. Religious Humanism

Elements of Religious Humanism

This section is intended as a brief exposition of the
Rabbinic belief that human beings are created in God's
image. This core idea of Rabbinic religious humanism is
then related to the bioethical discussions that constitute
Part II of the book.
As a point of departure, let us look at a traditional ...

4. Human Life. Human Lives: Assessing the Absolute

Humanism, as commonly understood, involves valuing
each individual qua human being, and hence implies a
commitment to human equality.1 Certainly that is the
sense of the coin parable cited above. Each individual is a
unique reflection of the divine image, and in this is fundamentally ...

5. Human Bodies: Long-Term Benefits and Symbolic Constraints

From the perspective of medical practice and research,
the human body might be viewed as a valuable resource:
Living persons, however, are rightly protected from medically
cannibalistic designs; this protection was a major
theme of our discussion in the previous chapter. But when ...

In Chapter 4 we examined Feinstein's notion of entitlement,
whereby a patient who should have been low on
the priority list may, simply by virtue of early arrival, gain
an exhaustive claim on limited resources. I offered an
explanation for this in terms of a conception of the duty to
help as a concrete obligation to a specific individual, as ...

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